How wireless are wireless printers?

My printer is on its last legs (and frankly I'm on my very last nerve with it) so I'm thinking of splashing cash on a nice colour laser printer. There will be two pcs and perhaps a laptop needing to print from it. Does one of them (a pc) need to connected to the printer with a USB cable or can I plonk it in a corner and everything connects to it wirelessly? I've not got a network set up - we just share a broadband connection. Will I need to set a network - a "proper" one?

Thanks in advance boffins!

How do you share your broadband connection, if not over a network?

You may need to plug the printer to a PC to set it all up, but it should work wirelessly afterwards.

You can use Wi-Fi Direct to connect but this requires the PCs and laptops to have wireless. Very unlikely the laptop won't be wireless unless it's ancient, PCs possibly wireless. Do you know if they are?

i have a hp office jet a3printer/scanner/wireless network printer set up was a doddle.

My printer is on its last legs (and frankly I'm on my very last nerve with it) so I'm thinking of splashing cash on a nice colour laser printer. There will be two pcs and perhaps a laptop needing to print from it. Does one of them (a pc) need to connected to the printer with a USB cable or can I plonk it in a corner and everything connects to it wirelessly? I've not got a network set up - we just share a broadband connection. Will I need to set a network - a "proper" one?

 

Thanks in advance boffins!

we have our printer on the landing, and print from 2 laptops and my desktop from different rooms, theres also a cable to plug one in if theres a wifi issue

How do you share your broadband connection, if not over a network?

You may need to plug the printer to a PC to set it all up, but it should work wirelessly afterwards.

I don't know if sharing a broadband connection is a network but if it was in its truest sense could I not just print from any machine that my current printer is attached too with a USB cable?

I've no clue how to do that.

---------- Post added 02-05-2017 at 22:23 ----------

You can use Wi-Fi Direct to connect but this requires the PCs and laptops to have wireless. Very unlikely the laptop won't be wireless unless it's ancient, PCs possibly wireless. Do you know if they are?

Laptop is wireless, pc1 has a wireless dongle. Not sure about pc2 but I could get a wireless card (do they still make them?) or a USB dongle for it. Not heard of wifi direct (you can tell I'm cutting edge ) but I'll look into it.

Thank you one and all!

When you say you "share" a broadband connection, do you have a wireless router, or do you share an internet connection through a PC that must be turned on?

If you have a wireless router, then you have a network and you could print from any PC without requiring a USB connection anywhere.

You can also print from any other machine, through a printer connected via USB, so long as the PC it's connected too is turned on. This is less convenient though, as you have to leave a PC on, and the location might not be central...

When you say you "share" a broadband connection, do you have a wireless router, or do you share an internet connection through a PC that must be turned on?

 

If you have a wireless router, then you have a network and you could print from any PC without requiring a USB connection anywhere.

 

You can also print from any other machine, through a printer connected via USB, so long as the PC it's connected too is turned on. This is less convenient though, as you have to leave a PC on, and the location might not be central...

We share a wireless router. Is it easy to setup the latter option though - for a layman obviously, not an IT professional

We share a wireless router. Is it easy to setup the latter option though - for a layman obviously, not an IT professional

You do have a network then. As along as the PCs are all connected to the same router either via wireless or a physical cable (ethernet) then you can share the wireless printer without using Wi-Fi Direct. I only suggested Wi-Fi Direct because you said you didn't have a network.

A wireless printer connects to your router the same as when you connect a wireless computer. All the devices can then talk to each other.

The set-up is easy just follow the instructions that come with the printer you buy.

Easy enough, if you know your network name and password.

Just a word of caution on wireless printers. Some of them (HP I know and others may be guilty) create their own little wireless network, so rather than connecting the printer to your existing network, you'd get a new one called say 'HP Printer' and you can connect to this from any device in range of the printer. The purpose of this baffles me but there you go. All sounds fine until you find out that nearly all of these printers have that network enabled out of the box which is bad enough, but that they have standard passwords like 12345678! Seriously. So now you've created a wireless network that tells anyone who sees it that it's a printer as it's in the wireless network name and anyone can connect to it because it has a default password...expect troublesome teens and people like me sending comedy print outs to it for fun. Or if you are my neighbour, I'll send you a message telling you how to turn it off via your own printer...you've been warned!

I shall have a play around with the existing setup. I last tried setting a network using Windows 98 and I couldnt manage to get it to work at all, so Im hoping things are far simpler now.